The Factory, The Paradigm Of Modernity / Фабриката - Парадигмата на модерността

VIIth Iberian DOCOMOMO Congress / IVth DOCOMOMO ISC Registers Seminar
Gijón, Asturias, Spain - 14-17 April 2010

Call for papers
The aim of the International Seminar to be held in Spain in 2010 is to reflect on the influence of technology on the emergence of modern-movement architecture and on the new view that would lead to change in the interpretations of all artistic experiences.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) initiated a line of thought which was inevitably destined to develop: that of the world of science as the object of philosophical reflection. At the same time, scientific and technical progress would consolidate, in practice, a new change in the interpretative values of Western culture.
In opposition to the world of nature that of the device would become consolidated, governed by the laws of technology, which would develop fully inside new architectural artefacts practically unknown until the nineteenth century. The factory, as a new architectural type, had come into being.
It would be in the factory, as a new expression of construction, that architecture developed one of the most specific manifestations of modernity, quickly travelling the distance that separated the steam engine from full industrialisation.
And not only architects, but also painters, sculptors, photographers and composers found in the world of technology and its container, the factory, a motive of inspiration and reflection on the scope of their respective artistic experiences. The film world, too, became trapped by its irrepressible lure, as Charles Chaplin ironically expressed in Modern Times.
In the construction of the factory new building techniques were developed as the expression of its utilitarian needs as well as of materials that had recently become available. Poets devoted many hours to its interpretation, while painters and sculptors modelled forms and used hitherto unknown expressive resources in an attempt to decipher the symbolism of technology.
The fascination that the factory generated has reached the present day. Its past splendour, now largely reduced to ruins, continues to attract our eye: having become thoroughly obsolete, factories nonetheless tell us not only of our past but also of some of the most meaningful concerns of our present. We project our gaze onto their ruins with deep nostalgia, melancholy and uncertainty, to the point where we are prepared to prolong their existence beyond their original use, now expired, to discover their new possibilities as leisure and cultural premises.
Reflect on your past reality and its potential for the future is thus the goal of the convening of this International Seminar. To order the Seminar, specifying the intent of lectures and conferences and taking into account the place of its conclusion, it is proposed to organize the whole of the work from a sectoral perspective. These take into account not only individual buildings but also its territorial integration, an issue that we consider crucial in order to assess both its architectural merits as intervention operations on them can be made. In this sense, we propose to confine the work, in addition to general reflections on, two specific productive sectors: coal-steel and Energy (thermal and hydro).

Schedule
February 22, 2010: Deadline for abstract submission (must not exceed 2100
characters)
February 26, 2010: Selection of abstracts by the scienti c committee
March 3, 2010: Notification of acceptance to the relevant authors
April 9, 2010: Deadline for submission of the final text of the papers
accepted (must not exceed 8 pages, 16800 characters, and 12 images)
April 14-17, 2010: Congress
The abstracts should be prepared according to the attached
template and will be submitted on line, by email, by registered mail
or by courier by 15:00 pm, February 22, 2010 to:

Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico
Plaça Nova 5, 3ª planta, 08002 Barcelona
Tel. 93 3067859 || email: fundacion@docomomoiberico.com
http://www.docomomoiberico.com/

Scientific Committee
Miguel Ángel Areces
João Viera Caldas
Celestino García Braña
Panayotis Tournikiotis

Speakers
Miguel Aguiló
Henri Bava
Jordi Borja
Sérgio Fernandez
Celestino García Braña
Piotr Gerber
Ana Tostões
Zaparij Vladimir V.
Panayotis Tournikiotis

Congress Secretariat
Algama, S.L.
Tlf. 984492462 Fax. 985171855
E-mail: docomomo7@coaa.es

Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Asturias
Marqués de Gastañaga, 3
33009 OVIEDO
Teléfono: 985 274 993 / 985 232 316
Fax: 985 273 946
Email: coaa@coaa.es
www.coaa.es